You know those black balls in the kid’s section of the Apple Store? Yeah, you probably shouldn’t sit on them: underneath the fabric exterior, they are essentially gigantic sponges soaked with the pee of a thousand children with such weak bladder control that they just hose off when they get excited, even in the Apple Store.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a picture of one black ball Apple was getting rid of after a bunch of kids had whizzed all over it. As the former Apple employee and Redditor who posted it says: “Just one of the nasty little “ewwws” lurking in arguable the coolest retail environments around.”

OK, great way to single out the Apple Store as the only place mentioned in the article. ANYWHERE children sit can become contaminated with leaky diapers or urine in the clothes of incontinent kids and even adults. They could have an “accident” hours before and be wandering around for hours in various shops and locations, and anything they sit on will be contaminated. It happens everywhere when there are kids involved, not just at the Apple Store. Any public place where there is seating of any kind, including any restaurant, doctor’s office, shoe store, park bench, etc. will have exactly the same problem, caused by both kids and adults. Walking out the door of your house exposes you to all kinds of bacteria, urine, feces, viruses and toxins, which quite fortunately the body is able to take in stride, as long as it has a relatively normal immune system. Don’t be freaked out into thinking the only place you have to worry about is the Apple Store. This aint new news.

Bob Smogango

It’s not toxic. So get over it.

Heck you know those bowls of pretzels and stuff in a bar? Guess what it has in it? Probably more crap/urine than anything else and that’s something you put your hands in and EAT. Sitting on this with your clothes on is probably not going to do anything harmful because you aren’t drinking it or eating it.

Jonathan Ober

the two of you complaining must have forgotten a few things — this is an Apple related news site and an Apple store was trying to get rid of the ball seat. … quit your crying …

About the author

John Brownlee is a Contributing Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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